Safe seats for Sunset Cliffs

The benches removed from Sunset Cliff Natural Park by Park and Rec Department crews look like throwbacks to Cotton Mather's era. But their removal doesn't sit well with park regulars who found the view compensation for bare boards. They want their benches back.

Those benches are history. Even in fiercely live-and-let-live Ocean Beach, further mourning their loss should bow to acknowledging and addressing the safety concerns of the department.

Second District Councilman Kevin Faulconer recognized potential danger after a local woman walking on the cliff side of the guard rail fell some 60 feet to her death in November. He requested that the department evaluate the park for ways to improve visitors' safety and review them with the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Council.

Parks noted some potentially serious problems – like gaping holes along the trail with no warning signs and the proximity of the benches to the cliff's edge and street traffic.

Parks' biggest concern, a natural for city officials, is the city's liability for accidental injury or death. But removing the benches and bemoaning the cost of maintaining more warning signs won't resolve the liability problem. Closing the trail to pedestrians only forces them to walk in the biking lane on a narrow street or clamber over the guard rail.

The angry reaction to Park's action, however, was largely self-inflicted. It failed to consult, or even to notify, the park council, which includes a Park and Rec official in Ocean Beach long enough to anticipate residents' ire. Prudence required at least a phone call to the council explaining that once the city knows of a danger to the public it must act to eliminate it.

The initial reaction of the mayor's office was the curious, unbecoming claim made in other instances: It wasn't the mayor's idea to remove the benches. Well, Jerry Sanders didn't personally unbolt and haul them away. He is, though, the executive ultimately in charge of his administration, of which Park and Rec is a part.

Wisely, Mayor Sanders has since said that the benches will be replaced, but at a safer, wider site along the trail and according to official bench-building specifications. Adding physical barriers around the holes along the trail should be even higher on the list.

Park council members and park department staff are to meet June 1. Replacing the benches is on the agenda.

Finally, a report on diverting the storm-water and irrigation runoff that experts say increases cliff erosion is due later this year. Note to the mayor's office: Send a copy to the Sunset Cliff Natural Park Council, pronto.